He died like a human.
Every year Chloe would visit his grave and pray that he would come back.
But he never would. The problem with mortality was once you were dead, you didn't come back, ever. Chloe laughed humourlessly. The Devil had lived for millennia before he met her.
That year was no different.
The afternoon was gunmetal grey, the air felt thin and crisp, and the breeze was sharp. It was cold for autumn. Chloe wound her scarf around her neck as she got out of the car, and grabbed a picnic basket and rug from the backseat. She walked in between rows of gravestones. She could hear Maze's voice from the one and only time she ever visited, years ago.
"Humans, dead humans" she spat, emphasising the human element.
It was all Chloe could think now. Lucifer didn't belong here. She arrived at the simple tombstone marking his grave. Despite the money which had ended up in her name Chloe hadn't created a grave fit for a King. Part of her would always be angry at him for leaving her and she knew if he was up in Heaven, looking down, he would be horrified and that made her smile. Chloe laid down the rug and sat down, unpacking her burger and fries and a bottle of wine. He may have died like a human, bled out like one, but he had never been human. Mortal but not human. And so Chloe hoped, believed actually that he could see her and maybe even hear her. She stared at the tombstone, its inscription carved into her mind so she could read it with her eyes closed, read it through the tears.
"In loving memory of a time well spent on Earth, of a life lived by Lucifer Morningstar. May your wings return and carry you home. Forever loved by Chloe and Trixie Decker."
The Devil wasn't supposed to die, much less die by a human hand, made mortal by a human woman but Chloe didn't feel guilty or selfish, nothing she could have said or done that day would have stopped him from protecting the people he loved. When he stepped in front of Maze, Chloe just knew. Her guttural scream from a distance away caused him to turn his head ever so slightly his eyes wide with fervour but not fear, never fear. Chloe unclipped the safety on her gun and fired at the criminal pelting Lucifer with bullets. She remembered the moment the final bullet hit the floor, a metallic ting, blunt and short. She couldn't hear anything for a moment or two but she knew Maze was screaming. The devil who claimed he didn't have a heart, saved a demon who didn't have a soul.
Maze would never forgive him. She didn't even want to be named on his gravestone.
But Chloe could, eventually, mostly.
She pictured him perched on the edge of the stone, glaring at her.
"Lucifer," Chloe greets, a smile hidden inside her cheeks.
He would scowl.
"I was the King of Hell for crying out loud."
It always went the same.
"Yep, King of Hell who will be punished for eternity for leaving me," Chloe laughs. He'd ignore her and Chloe rolls her eyes good-naturedly.
"I miss you," she whispers.
"I'm right up there," he would say, pointing at the stars. "Just beyond the blue sky, between the furthest star the human eye can see and the star further than that."
"Please come and visit, I know you're up there, I know you're home, just fly down and visit please."
He would never reply to that.
Chloe would sit there until nightfall every year.
The last year the conversation changed. Lucifer would be perched on his tombstone just as Chloe had always imagined him.
"I miss you," Chloe said.
"You'll see me soon," he replied.
He had never said that before. But Lucifer was a figment of Chloe's imagination, a memory, a voice in her head, the devil on one shoulder, and the angel on her other. Chloe had complete control over what he said, over what she imagined he'd say.
She blinked. He was gone from her mind's eye. She could not grasp the image again. Panic twisted in her stomach and reared up her throat. He was gone. And she needed him. She wasn't ready to die. She wanted to ask him if it hurt. If there was a moment between your last breath and death where you knew that this was it, a moment of fear and then clarity and peace.
In the end, there was just darkness and then light.
That's all it was.
In the same way that people created their own Hell, it seemed people created their own Heaven. Light and colour shifted and moved. Chloe felt light too, weightless and bright. Silhouettes formed in front of her, slowly becoming more recognisable as her Heaven constructed itself around her. A beach to her right, a comfy armchair and book to her left. Lucifer's piano glistened in front of her. People moved toward her, excited chatter filled the air.
"You see what you want to see, well except for me of course. Because who wouldn't want to see all of this?"
Chloe spun around.
"Miss me?" Lucifer asked.
She nearly slapped him but instead, she threw her arms around him and burst into tears. She pulled back suddenly.
"Were you really there? On your tombstone that last time, when you said, "I'll see you soon?"
"Ahhh," Lucifer acknowledged. "What do you mean by 'really there'?"
Chloe frowned and shook her head, "You know, real, were you real?"
Lucifer considered for a while.
"When a soul leaves Earth, they're still real. Instead of inhabiting a body though, they take the form of a memory and live here…" he said, pressing a hand to her heart. "So yes, I was real that time and all the other times. Your body knew Chloe and so did your mind. It was time to go and you knew I'd be waiting for you here. I always told you to trust your instincts."
Chloe didn't know what to make of his answer. It sounded like it deserved an eye roll. But who was she to judge what was real. She'd made that mistake once before, a lifetime ago.
"What happens in your mind, what happens in your heart is just as real as anything else you believe to be real."
Chloe nodded. Then she smiled, tears still glistening in her eyes.
"This is real, isn't it?" she asked.
Lucifer's face broke into a broad smile. He bit his lip and nodded, pressing his forehead against hers.